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The Commoner.
1
If
The Commoner,
ISSUED WEEKLY.
William J. Bryan.
Editor and Proprietor.
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THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Neb.
Entered at the postoffice at Lincoln, Nebraska,
ws second class mail matter.
Doubtless the g. o. p. leaders referred to
tlio full dinner pails of the gentlemen who con
trol the output of steel.
In the face of an industrial war the Repub
licans of Ohio demand a campaign on state
issues. Over in Pennsylvania the republicans
demand a campaign on national issues.
When organized labor goes on a political
strike and refuses to work for the political su
premacy .of politicians who cater to trtiBts and
monopolies there will be more hopes of success.
T. C. Piatt and Governor Odell should sub
mit their quarrel about the personality of the
next republican candid atef or president to Mr.
J. P. Morgan. The indications are that Mr.
Morgan will be the final arbiter, anyhow.
Professor Triggs calls most of the church
hymns "doggerel," probably because they do
not have that smooth oily flow so common to
the bits of poesy advertising paraffine candles
and other manufactures known as the by-products
of kerosene.
General Bates says he always made the Sulu
slaveholders prove their title to their slaves.
If they failed he gave the slaves freedom pa
pers. It seems time to attach a preamble to
Bates and set him in the place once occupied
by the constitution.
If democratic organs will confine their edi
torial utterances to tho upholding of domooratio
doctrines they will not have space to abuse and
deory men who were supporting democratio
platforms and candidates when some of tho
loudest advocates of reorganization were sup
porting tho republican ticket.
John Bull is arming Kaffirs and sending
them against the Boers. But this is nothing
new for John Bull. Indeed, it is a favorite
trick that he has been turning ever since 17V6.
It has not been so long ago .since he turned
Tecumseh loose under the spur of .British gold.
A republican politician in Kentucky wanted
a postoffice hold by a widow whose husband
had been a working democrat. " After vainly
striving to oust the widow the man married
her and became postmaster. "When a republi
can starts out after an office he will generally
accomplish his point.
Five men may meet secretly and lay plans
to crush an independent manufacturer, and" that
is called financiering. Five hundred men may
meet openly and endeavor to persuade their
fellows to stand by the juBt demands of or-
ganized labor, and that is called intimidation
and punished by prison sentences.
It has been discovered that after less than
twelve years of existence the steel armored
cruiser Columbia is worthless because of inat
tention and disuse. For two years it has been
deserted save for a $2 a day watchman, and tho
engines are rusted until they refuse to work
and are useless. One half the effort expended
in trying to make Sampson the hero of the
Spanisb-American war, would have kept this
cruiser in fighting trim.
A number of mouthpieces of trusts and
monopolies profess to bo greatly scandalized
because the striking steel workers broke cer
tain contracts said to have been made with
their employes. But these mouthpieces insist
by implication that it is right .and proper for
the strikers to break their contracts with their
fellows and repudiate their unions, flas it
come to pass that it is no sin to break a con
tract unless it happens to be a contract made
'with a trust?
The esteemed Chicago Chronicle seems fond
of telling how fusion has failed in Nebraska.
Let's see about that. Fusion rescued the state
from republican control after thirty years of
fruitless effort on the part of democracy." It
retired a republican senator after the state had
been the victim of unbroken republican sena
torial representation for more than a quarter of
a century. It reduced the republican represen
tation in tho lower house from three to two and
added four to the opposition. It uncovered
$500,000 of financial rottenness in the state's
finances and saved thousands of dollars to tho
permanent school fund. It cleared the political
atmosphere in Nebraska, and had democratio
newspapers liko the Chronicle worked as hard
for tho success of democratic principles
as tho democrats of Nebraska did, tho present
day rule of trusts and monopolies would not be
in existence, tho flag would not bo dishonored
abroad, tho constitution would not be a literary
collandor and the principles of the Declaration
of Independence would yet bo in full force and
effect.
Professor Professor Triggs' assertion
Triggs on . that church hymns are for tho
Church Hymns, most part doggerel has stirred
up a great controversy which
bids fajr to rago for some time to come. It ia
not a sufficient reply to Professor Triggs' as
sertion to say that ho is the gentleman who
likened Mr. Eockefeller to William Shake
speare. It is well for tho world that Profes
sor Triggs is sadly mistaken in his comparison
of the two men. No one can appreciate what
the world would have missed had Shakespoaro
been a financier instead of a poet and dramat
ist. As for the professor's remarks concerning
churoh hymns, he is entirely too sweeping in
his charges. No one will dispute that some
church hymns aro doggerel, but even the poor
est of them contain a sentiment dear to tho
Christian heart. Perhaps the professor would
be willing to write a few church hymns .merely
for the purpose of showing tho world just
what he would have church hymns to be.
Why -- Bourke Cockran was snubbed
Cockran in the House of Commons re-
Smiled. . cently. Mr. Cockran was tho
guest of Winston Churchill,
and the two met Colonel Arthur Lee, recently
the British military attache at Washington.
Colonel Lee did not deign to recognize tho
New York lawyer, and Mr. Churchhill asked
"Don't you know my friend Bourke Cockran?"
" "Yes," replied Colonel Leo, "The last time
I saw him he was welcoming Boer delegates to
Washington." .Then Colonel Lee turned ,on
his heel, leaving Mr. Cockran as ono English
writer puts it, "in a beastly state of humilia
tion." The more reliable information, however,
says: "Mr. Cockran only smiled, while Mr.
Churchhill made profuse apologies for subject
ing his guest to such a "rebuff." There are,
however, in America, millions of men and
women who can readily understand why
Mr. Cockran smiled. These can readily un
derstand why Bourke Cookran accepted Lee's
statement as a tribute rather than a rebuff.
True it was not intended as a tribute, but there
is an old fashioned notion in America that it is
a distinct-honor to have the privilege of wel
coming representatives of a people struggling
for' republican form of government.
If the Lee example is followed generally,
and Englishmen refuse to speak to Americans
who have expressed sympathy with the Boers,
then the conferences between American citizens
and King Edward's subjects will bo limited, so
far as this side of the water is concerned, to
administration politicians. At this rate ono
need not be surprised if some haughty Britisher
refuses to confer with an American on tho
ground that the latter has at some time or an
other paid tribute to tho memory of Georgo
Washington or said words of commendation
for the gallant deeds of "Mad Anthony" Wayne.
Americans ( "rebuffed," "rebuked" and "in
sulted" on this account, will smile, and can af
ford to smile exactly as Bourke Cockjan
smiled.
